"Oh say can you see..."

There is SOOOOO much in the news I could write about today, so it was hard to narrow it down to just one thing. But I like to write about what makes me passionate, and THIS really gets me going.... The doctored American flag, in which the stars were removed and Obama's photo inserted, had been flying for several months outside a local Florida Democratic Party headquarters. Evidently a Korean war veteran, Don Van Beck, took pictures of the flag, saying it made his blood boil. "I can't describe how upset I was because you just don't do that to the American flag," he said. He and other veterans demanded that they remove the flag, saying it as a violation of the federal flag code that prohibits any "marks, insignia, letters, words, figures, designs, picture or drawings of any nature."

"If you've been a veteran and fought, and some died for this flag, you don't want to see it desecrated. That's how simple it is," Van Beck said. Retired Marine John Masterjohn added, "It's a cult of personality to show his face, like Stalin or Mao. It' despicable. They don't realize how sick they are." I totally agree. This is the sort of thing countries with dictators do, like Kim Jung Il, Hugo Chavez, Saddam Hussein and Fidel Castro, to name the recent ones.

The chairwoman, Nancy Hurlbert, said "We're proud of our president and we didn't realize it was in violation. I am the chair and I take responsibility for this." According to the Orlando Sentinel, Hurlbert said she would look into the issue but didn't take the flag down right away. A short while later, she conceded and removed it. She said that since no one had said anything for several months that she believes it's not about the flag, adding, "Certain elements cannot accept Barack Obama as president."

No, Nancy - you just don't get it. He's not king and he's not a dictator. He is an elected individual of a republic. Our flag has been fought over since this country's inception, and it is sacred to us. We don't want ANY person's face on it EVER. We the people run this country, not one individual.

But then, we don't expect you to get it...